Spiritual vegetarians be warned! We have left the Milk-Gerber section. We are re-entering the meat department of God’s word! After introducing how Jesus is our perfect high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
How He lives forever so he will be our priest forever. How His sacrifice was once and for all, and we will never need another sacrifice to be made on our behalf. And because Jesus lives forever, He forever intercedes for us — going before the Father on our behalf, He’s our representative, He takes care of us, He stands up for us, and He looks out for us.
Chapter 8 continues this theme.
Vs1-2 Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being. The writer of Hebrews brings together the main point of the previous chapter. We have a High Priest — Jesus Christ — who serves us from a position of all authority in heaven (seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty).
The tabernacle and the temple of the Old Covenant had beautiful furnishings, but no place for the priests to sit down because their work was never finished. Today the work of Jesus is finished, today He is seated in heaven.
Jesus doesn’t serve as a priest in an earthly tabernacle or temple. He serves in the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, the original made by God. The tabernacle of Moses was a copy of this original, and it was made by man.
Vs3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. Sacrifice for sin is essential to the concept of priesthood. Jesus represented a better priesthood and because He represented a better priesthood, He offered a better sacrifice. Even though Jesus never offered a sacrifice according to the Law of Moses He did offer a better sacrifice — the sacrifice of Himself to pay the penalty for sin.
Vs4-5 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.
This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Jesus wasn’t qualified to serve in the inferior earthly priesthood. Because under the law you had to be from the tribe of Levi.
There were plenty of these priests who could serve in the copy and shadow on the earth.
Yet Jesus is the only One qualified to serve in a better heavenly priesthood. The earthly service, though it was glorious in the eyes of man, was really only a copy and shadow of a better heavenly service.
Exodus 25:9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.
Vs40 See that you make them according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.
These verses tell us that Moses’ tabernacle built on earth was made according to a pattern that exists in heaven. That there is a heavenly temple that served as a pattern for the earthly temple. Jesus’ ministry as our High Priest takes place in this heavenly temple, not in the copy or shadow built on earth.
8:6 But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is mediator is superior to the old one since the new covenant is established on better promises.
What ministry? (MARK) The Ministry of Reconciliation
Jesus has mediated for us a better covenant, a covenant of grace and not of works, it is a covenant marked by believing and receiving instead of by earning and deserving. John 3:16
Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant, a better covenant, a covenant where we can draw near to God and God will draw near to us. And we can approach the very throne of God with boldness. There is no one on the planet who has better access to God than you!!
Jesus said: in Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
The new covenant of Jesus fulfills the other covenants God made in the Bible. Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, or the Davidic covenant.
The final redemptive plan of God has been fulfilled in the New Covenant: Luke 22:20 ….He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Jesus has better promises for us. These are promises that can and will see us through the most desperate and darkest of times. Promises from the Word of God that become alive to us through the Spirit of God.
8:7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. If God established a New Covenant, it means that there was something lacking in the Old Covenant.
We learned that last week: Hebrews 7:18-19 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
8:8-12 Read from Jeremiah 31:31-34 (over 600 years)
Genesis 3:15 “…He will crush your head, and you will bruise His heel.”
God makes it clear that this covenant would originate with Him, and not with man. At Sinai under the Old Covenant, the key words were (Exodus 19:5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant), but in the New Covenant, the key words are I will. 5-6 times God says “I will”
- I will make a new covenant with the people I will establish with the people I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.
- I will be their God, and they will be my people. I will forgive their wickedness, I will remember their sins no more.”
What is God’s new covenant with us? It is the promise that He will be our God and we will be His people; we can know Him and relate to Him as our heavenly father; He has forgiven our sins and will remember them no more; He will put His laws in our minds and writes them down on our hearts.
The Old Covenant was written by God on tablets of stone.
- The New Covenant is written by God in the hearts of His people.
- The New Covenant offers a true, complete cleansing from sin, different and better than the mere “covering over” of sin in the Old Covenant.
- The New Covenant features transformation from the inside out, not regulation from the outside in.
- The New Covenant definitely began with Israel but it was never intended to end with Israel. Galatians 3:28-29 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
8:13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
Now that the New Covenant has been established, the Old Covenant is now made obsolete.
The message was clear to these confused Christians from Jewish backgrounds, who thought of going back to a more Jewish faith. They simply can’t go back to an inferior covenant, which had not only become weak and useless, but had become obsolete, and was ready to completely disappear.
The system of sacrifice under the Law of Moses did soon disappear with the Roman destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem. (AD70)
But the truth is: The old covenant disappeared/obsolete when Jesus our great high priest died on the cross of calvary as the final sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Please hear me, The New Covenant is unchanging and eternal. The new covenant was initiated by God and sealed by the blood of Jesus on the cross, in order to secure our personal intimate relationship and fellowship with God.
We have seen Jesus is greater than angels, greater than Moses, greater than Abraham… Jesus is a Better priest, has a better ministry, mediates a better covenant, has better promises, serves in a better sanctuary, and has provided a better sacrifice, and because of all that, we can have a better hope.
JESUS
We have come here today in the name that is above all names. We meet in his name, pray in his name, sing songs about his name, and we commune in memory of his life, death, burial, and resurrection. Today we live with hope in the promise of His return.
Some might look at this faith we hold and say that we are out of this world. I would say, not yet! But because of what Jesus has accomplished on my behalf, I am definitely on my way!
Make JESUS as important to you as He is to your salvation
Kim Lockhart says
Wonderful service!! Great to be Able to watch while im at work, and can’t be there.